Freddie Mercury was one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic characters in Rock and Roll History. This is why the long-gesturing biopic of his and the rest of Queen's story has been a difficult one to bring to the big screen. Originally, Bohemian Rhapsody was supposed to star Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen then left the project after he felt the story was being watered down from an R-Rating to a PG-13 version as the band wanted After the studio settled on Mr. Robot star Rami Malek, the film still had obstacles to face. Troubled director Brian Singer left the project mid shoot, leaving Dexter Fletcher to finish the shoot. With all of these issues, is the movie successful? In some ways...yes! In others...no.
If nothing else is to be praised with this film, it is the amazing performance of Rami Malek as Mercury. He plays Mercury as he was, electrifying yet tender. Charming, yet guarded. Exploring his Paki-Afro roots, and how his family viewed Mercury was a large part of Mercury's unwillingness to immediately explore his bisexuality. Malek has the private moments down flawlessly, while perfectly modeling Mercury's on-stage charisma. The casting of the rest of the band was nearly perfect, as they had the performances of Queen down pat. The especially electrifying moment of the movie was the Live Aid sequence. The 1985 performance is frequently cited as Queen's best. The amount of effort, staging, and blocking that went into recreating the concert is simply stunning and nearly left me in tears. The story as a whole is very crowd-pleasing. But is that what really happened?
One of the film's biggest downfalls was its many historical inaccuracies. Much of the timeline is off within the film to add dramatic effect. For example, the film explores Mercury's bisexual lovers. Many of his relationships were highly exaggerated, especially to show effect. Mercury's drug addiction was severely underplayed, as the film made it seem like his flamboyance was his downfall. The character of Paul Prenter was used more like the gay "devil on the shoulder." Mercury is seemed almost an innocent victim, rather than held accountable or shown as mentally ill for the purpose of making him seem likable to the audience. The decoding of his mysterious persona gets no clearer with Bohemian Rhapsody. There were facts that were just wrong exploring Mercury's death, and when he possibly knew. Within the time restraints of the film, he probably had no idea he was sick. The use of a Beatleseque breakup drama was also fabricated to make Queen's story more interesting. Why this needed to be added made absolutely no sense to me. I understand that poetic license is an important tool for biopic writers. But the screenplay of Bohemian Rhapsody feels lazily written. That being said, no viewer cannot sit in a theater and help but smile when Mike Myers makes a reference to his own performance in Wayne's World in a cameo in this film.
If you ignore the facts of real life, Bohemian Rhapsody is an A+ film,. however, it could be viewed as a watered down, over-long glancing over at the life of the band. Malek's performance will see a guaranteed Oscar nomination come January. Despite this, Bohemian Rhapsody still is a good film in my book, but I really wish it was great.
Grade: (7/10)
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